The present invention concerns a "make-your-own" system for making a cigarette, especially a filter-tipped cigarette, said system comprising a dimensionally stable tobacco portion matched with the tobacco-receiving volume of the cigarette and a cigarette paper wrapper, especially in the form of a cigarette tube, for closely enveloping the tobacco portion.
Cigarette-making by the smoker has been known in various forms for a very long time. This applies chiefly to the so-called "roll-your-own" cigarette making by the use of pieces of cigarette paper provided with a glue-pasted seam. Rolling one's own cigarettes requires some manual skill and is time-consuming. Even with people skilled in rolling their own cigarettes, these vary widely as to size, stability and degree of filling along the length of the cigarette and are only a primitive substitute for factory-made cigarettes. A further drawback is the inevitable crumbling of tobacco, whereby the tobacco yield is reduced. The same problems--even though less severe--exist when roll-your-own appliances are used.
Similar arguments apply to the other basic way of making one's own cigarettes, viz. stuffing one's own cigarettes by means of more or less convenient appliances for introducing a predetermined quantity of tobacco into empty cigarette tubes which normally have a filter tip attached thereto.
A considerable advance in respect of these conventional methods is represented by the proposal made in EP-A-155,514, which originates from the present applicant and which is characterised by a dimensionally stable tobacco portion that is adapted to the tobacco filling of a finished cigarette, wherein the outer surface of said portion is formed by a cover of fully smokable material and the outer surface is air-permeable to such an extent that the tobacco portion itself cannot be smoked but can only be smoked when its outer surface has been closely wrapped with cigarette paper or the like. A tobacco product of similar structure is proposed in EP-A-178,605, wherein according to a preferred embodiment thereof the diameter of the tobacco portion is slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the cigarette paper tube of the finished cigarette so as to facilitate insertion of the tobacco portion into the prefabricated cigarette paper tube. Therefore, in order to achieve the intimate engagement between the tobacco portion and the cigarette paper required for smoking, it is necessary for the user to increase the diameter of the tobacco portion by subsequent mechanical manipulation thereof.
As a wrapper for the tobacco portion, the last-mentioned solutions chiefly propose perforated cigarette paper or perforated tobacco sheet, the latter wrapping material being a paper-based carrier material having tobacco dust glued thereon so that a uniform layer of tobacco dust is formed. But both wrapping materials are characterised by paper which is unnecessary for smoking and also, in the case of the tobacco sheet, by unnecessary binding agent for the tobacco dust, these materials apparently resulting in a corruption of flavour. Also, these wrappers are not ideal in respect of external appearance and a close fit of the tobacco portion within the cigarette paper tube. In particular, the smoker is constrained to consume more paper and, if applicable, binder material than would commonly be the case.